We meet again
by ohateder
Summary: Right, that line isn't there in the story,but it's something along that line. Gwen has just moved to NY to start a brand new, alienfree life.Obviously that doesn't happen.Wanna know why?Go click. NOT GxB.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: This is my first ever story…so be nice...please! Yeah, and since it's the first chpter,it's going to be a bit boring. But I hope the next chapter'll be better!

Disclaimer: I do not own Ben 10 or its characters.

"That's all," sighed Gwen. She looked around her room contentedly. She had been arranging her room for an hour or so, pulling the furniture around until they suited her. Then she had to get all her numerous belongings and arrange them. Moving into a new house was hard work. She went to her little bedroom balcony and gazed down. _Whoa, fourteen floors is a long way up._ But she had seen worse. Just the thought of her summer vacation with her Grandpa and Ben made her laugh. Nothing should seem bizarre or frightening compared to what she'd seen. But that was five years ago. Since then, she hadn't heard anything about any aliens. She had met Ben two years ago at Christmas and he still had the omnitrix. Her Grandpa was enjoying retirement last time she heard about him. The most interesting thing that happened so far was their moving to New York. Yay. Life was all right. And annoyingly boring.

"Gwen, honey?"

"Yes mum?"

"Do you want to go downstairs?"

"Why not? I'll see what shops they have around…get acquainted with the area."

"Take your mobile and come back in half an hour."

"Yeah…bye!"

Gwen left the house and went downstairs. The building was in a residential area so it was quieter and had less traffic around than the other streets. There was a café, a mini supermarket, a bank, a hardware store, a bookshop…Gwen kept on walking until she reached the nearest subway.

Subway? Wasn't that where she last saw Kevin? No wait… he was last in the null void zone, with Vilgax. Most probably, he got killed. She felt a little sorry for him… if only he'd listened…but it was his own stubbornness that finally did him in._ So he deserves it._

She made her way to the nearest cola vending machine. A boy was in front of it, shaking and shouting at it. _Probably lost his money. _He then bent down to get the can. When he turned, Gwen clearly saw his face, and instantly recognized him. Kevin._ Think of the devil…_ and she immediately turned around and ran. She stopped till she was about a block away and looked back. No Kevin. _Obviously not, he'd be after me if he saw me. It's probably some guy who looked a bit like him-I shouldn't have gone Chicken Little and jump to conclusions._

_Kevin's probably in hyperspace or some place like that. If he's alive._

_Right? _

_First day of school-a supposedly happy event. You expect to feel a little nervous but not so much that your stomach drops out at the sight of the school gates!_ But Gwen's fear was understandable- after all, she was going to one of the most expensive and demanding school in New York City-

She then remembered Bancroft academy._ No they can't be as stuck up as them._ Somehow, she managed to make her wobbly legs walk up to the door.

She was immediately in a large hall that divided into several different paths. It was sparsely furnished- to the far right next to a door, there was a table, a cupboard and a chair. .Most of the lights were turned off, giving the place a sombre look. There was nobody in sight, but she could hear a quiet buzzing from far away.

"What are you doing standing here young lady? Get to your class!" A plump little lady dressed in a purple suit appeared behind her.

"I'm new, and I don't know my class…"

"You are? Why didn't you say so? Come right here I'll give you your timetable." She scuttled to the desk. "What did you say your name was?"

"Gwendolyn Tennyson"

"Yes, here it is, Gwendolyn Tennyson. What a unique name! Well your class is just there- here's your timetable. Your class starts at eight- but you already knew that- you arrived early! Punctuality is very important here- well it is important everywhere-but especially here. Here are your locker keys, dear, and I've assigned a girl to show you around…Penelope her name is, also a red-head like you, a very sweet and polite girl..."

"Erm… thank you-"

"Have you got all your books? You won't believe all the complaints I get from the teachers- that the students don't have their books or their stationary or whatnot- this is really the student's job don't you think?" She suddenly looked at the clock. "But I am making you late! No stalling there, go on, off you go!" And disappeared into another hallway.

Gwen took a deep breath and looked up. A girl with remarkably frizzy red hair wearing a pair of black thick glasses was looking at her all this time. "Yes, Miss Periwinkle is very talkative- to a fault sometimes." she said coolly.

"My name is Penelope, but call me Penny. You're the new student, I suppose?"

"Yeah, I'm Gwen."

Penny walked over to her and looked at her timetable. "Hmm, yes, our classes are quite similar. Math first then, this way."

Gwen followed Penny down a hallway. The hall didn't seem look as dull as before. The corridor opened to another big hall. Groups of students were lingering around, quietly going about their business.

"How big is the school?"she asked suddenly.

"Oh, big enough. Two more floors, though. You like it?"

"It's very…maze-like."Gewn tried to explain. " Something just pops up at every corner."

"Yeah, it's like that. There's our classroom."

Penelope flicked on the light switch as they entered the room. Some students were already inside, writing and drawing on the board, and talking. Some turned to acknowledge the two coming in, others didn't seem to notice.

"That's your seat. And I sit here, behind you." She sat on the last seat of the middle column. Students state filling in, slowly taking their seats, and the room gradually grew noisier. Gwen took her seat, and took out her books.

"I'll introduce you to my other friends during break," she said. "We won't be seeing them now; they're all in different classes." Anyways, we shouldn't talk now. The teacher just came in!"

_Well, that was an easy start._

The first three classes proceeded without much incident. "Come, I'll show you around first," said Penny." It's quite a big school…" They did a quick tour of the school, and came back to the cafeteria.

"Pen! Where were you?" said a Chinese-looking girl behind them.

"Gwen this is Caren, Caren, Gwen. I've been showing her around school."

"Let's get something to eat. I missed breakfast…" said Caren. Penny looked sideways at her. "Because I woke up late! God!"

They were soon seated amongst a group of other girls. "This is Gwen everybody, she's new here."

"We know that," said a dark haired girl. "My name is Veronica."

"Hi, I'm Amber," waved a blonde beside Veronica. She turned to the African American girl sitting by her side. "Since you're not going to introduce yourself,"said Amber pointedly, "...this is Tyra." Tyra didn't say anything, just smiled politely. They sat down and talked- first about their new classes, who sat beside who, who had what teacher…in a few minutes the talk turned to their summer vacations. Initially Gwen felt like an outsider, but the girls were so easy- going and had such warmth that Gwen could easily fit in with them. The bell rang.

"Who has English now?"

"Just me," said Amber, finishing off a chocolate bar.

Gwen looked at her timetable. "And me," she told her.

"Good, someone to talk to. You don't know how many times I fall asleep." said Veronica. "Hardly anyone in my class… our teacher's a mad windbag who wears a nightgown."

"Did I show you your locker?" asked Penny.

"No…" Gwen fished out her keys from her pocket. "It's number 514."

"That's near mine," stated Amber. "Ronnie, you go along, I'll take Gwen along to lighten that load she's carrying."

Gwen walked with Amber. "You know… thanks a lot for what you've done."

"What have we done?" asked Amber simply.

"Helped me out on my first day and stuff. I didn't expect to make friends so easily."

"That's what we're supposed to do, innit?" she said laughingly.

Two girls were walking towards them. Just as one of them approached Gwen, she tripped and fell on Gwen's shoulder. Gwen didn't notice- they both fell face down their books spilling out of their bags.

"Oh god "said Gwen.

But the girl- "Ohh Susana, I've sprained my ankle!" she cried to the other girl

Gwen got up quickly. "I'm sorry," she said, offering the girl a hand to help her up.

"You'd better be," said Susana, and slapped Gwen's hand away.

"She was only tryna help, no need to slap her away like that," growled Amber, grabbing Gwen and pulling her back.

"OoOwwW!" groaned the other girl.

"Is it that bad? "asked Gwen.

"Yes it is," she snapped.

"Shut up Marie, you're fine!" retorted Amber. "You're a terrible actress- so stop faking it."

"Bitch," mouthed Susana to Amber.

"Only for you, sweetheart." she replied. She took Gwen's arm. "Come on Gwen…we shouldn't waste time here, of all places."

"Gwen? What kind of name is that?" said Marie.

"Great, another one joined the doofus gang." scowled Susana.

"Who were those…girls?" asked Gwen as she deposited her book in her locker.

"Well they are the most stupid, obnoxious, pathetic, stuck up little wannabes in the school. God knows how they got in here, this school's supposed to be selective, they've got no brains whatsoever…ah well-the brunette is Marie and the taller one is Susana. They really don't belong to any group, they just hang around…we just stand them, you know. It's just they hate us more than anyone else… and vice versa. They're just plain annoying at most. Walk away and pretend you don't see them next time you meet."

During English Amber told Veronica about the incident. They also sent notes to Gwen telling her about all the things they'd done. Apparently, they had cheated on many exams (and failed), caused various 'accidents' and stole lots of things (including tickets, books, boyfriends and science fair projects) and loved to make a big deal out of nothing.

"They harmless, but we won't act as if they won't try to cause chaos in your life." said Veronica in a note. "Best thing to do, is just walk away."

Gwen read it and smiled at them, and turned back her attention on the weird nightgown-wearing lady who was droning on something about the colors of her Scottish ancestor's kilt.

Gwen's family was at the dinner table. This is usually the only time they were all together, as Gwen's dad worked during the night and her mom and Gwen were away in the mornings. From about six to nine they were all together at home, and had dinner together.

Gwen was telling her parents about her first day at school.

"It was very good, better than I expected really," said Gwen.

"We're glad about that. We were so worried- you've stayed in the same school for such a long time, that you might not be able to adjust," said her dad

"I told you, she'd be fine," said her mom. "All that fuss for nothing."

"They not as stuck up as I expected," continued Gwen. "Oh except for those two…Marie something and Susana Wakefield."

"Wakefield? I know that guy,"

"Wasn't he in your company? You mentioned him a lot… "

"He was, in The NY branch. That was a few years ago. But then something happened and he joined a rival company. He's well… I can't say he's bad, but he is a bit power crazy. That was the reason he left us. Otherwise, he all right. He believes in aliens.Hah!"

"I know you don't, but no need to attack other people for it,"

"Please." He turned to Gwen. "Imagine a grown man chasing after aliens."

"Hee hee heh…"Gwen was thinking about her Grandfather.

"Well anyways, he's an okay person. But recently he sent an e mail telling me found something really big. Seemed really happy about it."

"I thought you two stopped corresponding/"

"No we're all right; we just talk now and then. I asked him what it was, but he told me to wait. Said I'd find out for myself."


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Right, I get 40+ hits but only three reviews.

To the one who did review: THANK YOUUUU!!

Disclaimer: Since I don't belong to the "Man Of Action" group, Ben 10 doesn't belong to me.

The next two weeks passed without much incident. Gwen had to work really had o keep up with her school work- her school was very demanding. She was also very close to her five friends, and she was a bit amazed at how such contrasting people were friends for so long.

Penny was the sweet natured one. She was the type that would never dream of doing anything bad or hurtful to others, and so she was well-liked at school- everyone liked her because she was such a good talker .She was no gossip girl, but she did know a lot about the doings of the other people. Caren was an easygoing person. She usually tagged around with Veronica. Veronica was the unanimous leader of them all- she had a very short temper, but since she was such excellent student, and also had such an admirable personality, this was often overlooked. She was the leader of various clubs, and also the prefect of her class. Nobody dared go against her word and there were a few who could stand up to her. Caren was one of them. Tyra was the very unobtrusive one, but she wasn't liked too much by the rest of the school (because she was so quiet and detached) but she was very kind once you know her. She also knew a lot about others- people of this type do- but she never says anything except when needed and only to her best friends. Amber was, as everyone would say, Amber. And anyways, Gwen didn't know a lot abut her or Caren.

Gwen stayed clear of Marie and Susana, or "The Two" as they all referred to them. She wouldn't look at them if they passed her, and they usually tried to annoy her by talking aloud about her or her friends. Gwen never did anything to them, nor did she want to, because as Caren put it, " They are not worth our thoughts."

"That's all I can stand from the redhead," said Susana one day. Gwen and Tyra were around, not too far off.

"Penny?" asked Marie.

"No the new one. The ONE WHO SPRAINED YOUR ANKLE..."

"Oh, THAT one." They looked directly at Gwen for a second, and turned. Gwen knew they were deliberately talking loudly, so that everyone around would hear.

"Look at the way she's glaring at us," continued Marie. Gwen was unloading her booking into her locker this while.

"What have we done to her?" lamented Susana.

"What drama queens," whispered Tyra. Gwen giggled.

"Great, now they're laughing at… themselves." commented Marie. "What a bunch of idiots!"

"This school is full of idiots. Everyone is so conceited. They think they're too good for us."

Gwen turned around to face them. "You guys don't get it, do you?" The Two looked at each other. Before either one could open their mouth, Gwen continued.

"We weren't laughing at ourselves, you know that perfectly well. We were laughing at you. The whole school makes fun of you. You're the ones who are conceited. Maybe if you two started being nice for a change, people would like you more. And I haven't done anything to you, nor do I plan to. So stop wasting YOUR time following me around and saying silly things about me." she turned around, and proceeded to her class. She then turned around again. "And if you hate this place so much, you might as well change school. Don't worry; we won't miss you two much."

"Nice!" said Tyra. "The whole corridor heard that, by the way."

"Then my little speech served its purpose." replied Gwen.

Susana pulled on Marie's sleeve. "Let's go. Forget what that thing just said." Her cheeks were pink, and she was feeling very uneasy. Marie didn't say anything, and her face was expressionless. They both turned and walked away haughtily.

Gwen took the bus from school to the subway. She's usually the one who goes alone, everyone else got picked up by their parents or their drivers. She waited at the subway for the train, which would come some fifteen minutes later. To pass the time, she took out a book to read. After a while , she noticed a small, nerdy looking, skeletal boy was looking at her for quite a long time. She looked up, directly at him. He was standing nearby with a group of boys. Two of them were definitely staring at her. One was talking to someone else, and another one was staring at the ceiling. All of them looked rather like shaved gorillas in clothes. She got up and walked off to sit somewhere else. She glanced behind her- one of them was following her. She walked faster, and checked a minute later. This time three of them were behind her. Gwen looked for a way out, but she had walked into some sort of tunnel and turning back would lead her right into them. She broke into a run, and suddenly someone came and pushed her aside. Gwen realized too late that she'd just walked into a dead end. The guy who pushed her appeared, along with a taller boy she recognized. His name was Pete and she'd seen him sometimes in school. All five of them were around her now, in a semicircle. One of them grabbed her bag and threw it aside.

"That's a pretty necklace…give it to me now." said Pete.

"And hand over any money you've got," ordered the scrawny one. The one called Pete flicked out a penknife. Gwen flung her purse, and her necklace at him, and proceeded to walk away.

"Not so fast!" said another guy.

"I gave you what you want, now let me go," ordered Gwen. The guy was about to slap Gwen- but she caught his hand, turned him around and kicked him squarely on his back, so her fell to the ground, and cleared a path for her to escape.

She sped forwards- and tripped- the guy who fell down was holding her by the ankle so she steeped hard on his hand. He let go in pain, and she stumbled forwards. But two of them were in front of her, blocking her way. Someone else grabbed her by the shoulders , and threw her back into the group of boys. This time, Gwen was pinned against the wall with her back to her captors.

"You just hurt my friend there, " said one of them.

"He was gonna hit me-"

"Shut up! Check her pockets for any other stuff." She managed to kick one of their legs before anyone of them could get their hands on her. Instantly. Gwen knew it was a bad idea as she felt a pair of hands strangling her neck.

"What are you creeps doing here? This is my area…" drawled a cold voice.

"It's the freak who broke you nose last time, Dan!"

"Go get him!"

Gwen couldn't see exactly what was going on, but as she turned the short one hit her on the head real hard, and she crumpled to the ground in pain. The short guy was trying to take her necklace off, but she kicked him away. By what she could make out from the sounds and the movements in the dim light, somebody was being beaten up real bad. Probably that new guy who just came in. Gwen smelt something like plastic burning.

She heard Pete scream. "Get away from me, freak!"

"He's using his whacko powers again!"

"Get out!" roared the other guy.

The short one was about to make a run for it, when he met the other guy. He held him by the arm. "You want you hand burnt too, Jeremy? Eh?"asked the guy. "Your pals aren't here to protect your skin…"Jeremy shook his head madly. He pushed him off, and Jeremy ran away with a squeal.

Gwen pushed her hair back, and looked up to see her new friend… or foe.

Foe, she decided. Kevin was glaring down at her. He had grown obviously, but more or less the same clothes. Black outsized jeans, a frayed grey sleeveless shirt- but he got (stole, she corrected herself) a worn out brown jacket.

"Quite a while since we last met, "he sneered. He pulled her up by her arm.

"Kev-Kevin…"she spluttered.

"You remember…but how couldn't you?" he turned around and started walking off. "Me being after you boyfriend and all that…"

"Ben's my cousin," she said angrily.

"Whatever." Gwen noticed her bag on the floor, and started to gather up her things. As she did so, she said,"Hey, thanks anyways for saving me…"

'Wasn't intentional."

"Still…I don't know how to thank you."

"This yours?" Kevin interrupted. He was holding up her purse.

"Yeah," she replied. He passed it to her. "Thanks. Have you seen- oh there it is-"

But Kevin had already picked up her necklace. She held out her hand, but Kevin was looking at it, interested. Her grandpa had given it to her, two years back, for 'enduring' with him and Ben. The chain was a simple silver one- but the locket was the better part. It was a glass and silver case in the shape of a small heart. Tiny red, pink and white crystals were encased within that jingled with every movement.

"What a pretty locket…good those dweebs didn't get their hands on this."

"Yes…hey!" Kevin had slipped it into his jacket pocket.

"Good enough for repayment, huh?" he smiled at her.

"No!" said Gwen and reached him for it, but Kevin laughed and backed off. He turned around, and quickly disappeared off into the tunnel.

"Fine then, keep it!" she shouted. She was glad anyways she was safe. She hadn't told anyone about the locket, so her parents wouldn't know what was missing. And Kevin was right. Forget the other guys hurting her-HE would have killed her if he wanted to- but he didn't. And for that, he deserves something.

A/N: I hated the necklace bit. Everyone's after it, don't you think?

Review people!! Thnx.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: I think this is gonna be the shortest chapter. And just a lil' bit of info- I took Kev's age to be around 16- 17. He was a teenager when he met Ben.

Disclaimer: If I owned Ben 10, you wouldn't be reading this but you'd see it on TV. So I don't.

Kevin had stolen so many things; he couldn't even remember the first thing he stole._ Food, most probably._ He's always been like that, taking things that didn't belong to him, but not on purpose- just out of curiosity. His parents had to reprimand him quite a lot for that.

But for some reason, stealing redhead's necklace felt like a bad thing. But why?

_I fucking saved her life; I acted like that shit Ben for once. I deserve something right?_

_Yes you do,_ answered another part of his mind, the guilty part._ But you could've taken her purse or some shit…but not the locket._ He took it out to look at it again. It was very pretty to look at, and he liked he sound the crystals made when he shook it. He didn't have the heart to sell it, nor did he have the guts to return it back to her. He squeezed it in his hand, hoping it'd disappear…when that didn't work, he put it back inside his jacket pocket. _Just a stupid trinket. What do I care what happens to it…_

A boy knocked into him. "Oi, watch it!" he snarled, pushing the boy away. The boy fell down. Kevin checked his pockets, in case the guy nicked something. He couldn't find the locket!

The poor boy had just sat up, when Kevin pulled him up by the collar and yelled. "Give back what you just stole from me, bastard!" Before Kevin could punch him, something pulled his ear. He let go to see- an old lady was pulling him by the ear into a schoolyard. "Bad boy! Swearing in public! At front of the school gates too! Saturday detention!" Kevin was stunned. She dragged him into the school with immense ease, which was amazing considering her frail build.

"Lady- I'm don't know you and I'm not in this school. So lemme go!"

"No, no, don't lie to me Boris Appleby," she threw him into a bench in a corridor.

"Stay!" she barked. "I'm coming back in a minute- you'll be seeing the principal now- and don't think I can see you if you move!"

_Grand, _thought Kevin. He thought logically. _If I try to get out, that mad lady will be after my ass… all I have to do is say I'm not Applewhatshit, and I'll be outta here, no problem. _He then remembered what caused all this commotion. He put his hand into his pocket again to feel the metal lining of the heart. And then mentally slapped himself.

He looked around. There was just one man, shuffling some papers in his suitcase. Kevin heard footsteps. The man immediately shut his brief case with a snap, and put it under his chair without locking it. It was just a janitor passing by. Just then, the door in front of Kevin opened. "Mr Wakefield?" a grey haired man opened the door from inside. "I'm free now, come in." the other man followed him inside, forgetting to take his suitcase.

Kevin grinned._ Chance to get some money._ He got up, and looked around. Nobody. He walked to a nearby water tank and got a drink. No one…_Yep, do it now._ He turned to walk back to his place, when the same janitor popped into the corridor. He looked around, but didn't see Kevin. He took out the suitcase, and smiled when it opened at the first try. "Idiot," Kevin heard him hiss. _You got that right,_ he thought. He watched him take out a folder, tuck it into his jacket, close the suitcase and leave .Kevin walked back to his seat as the 'janitor' left. He saw the suitcase on the chair, and tried opening it. Didn't work.

"What are you doing, Appleby?" said a voice. It was the old lady again. To add to Kevin's misfortune, the door opened, and the principal and Mr. Wakefield were both standing in front of him.

"What are you doing?"asked Mr. Wakefield when he noticed Kevin's hand on the suitcase.

"Appleby, you should know better, you shouldn't touch other people's possessions!" the old lady scolded.

"Miss Periwinkle, who is this?" asked the headmaster.

"Appleby, sir. The one from tenth grade?" Kevin was just about to deny that when Mr. Rake filed yelped. "My file! It's gone!" he turned to Kevin. "You boy, where are they?"

"How should I know?" said Kevin. Mr. Wakefield looked at the headmaster.

"I didn't know you enrolled liars and thieves into your school, sir,"

"I assure you, Mr Wakefield, this boy does not belong to this school." The headmaster looked angrily at Miss Periwinkle. "Jade, look at him. Does he look as though he's from our school? Does he look like a normal teenager? He's not Appleby! "

"Oh my," blushed Miss Periwinkle.

"I don't care what he is- where is my file, boy?" yelled Mr. Wakefield.

Kevin now knew how it felt to be held guilty for something he didn't do._ How ironic._

"Where are you hiding them?" said Mr. Wakefield.

"How the hell should I know? I didn't take them! Some janitor took it, I just saw him shutting the case-I was just there-"he pointed out by the water fountain.

"Then why were you holding his suitcase?"asked the headmaster.

"I-I-thought…"Kevin's mind went blank.

"See? He stole it!" said Mr. Wakefield

"You've got the wrong guy! It was that janitor"

"Then you gave it to him!" Wakefield said, as he rushed out of the corridor.

"Your fault anyways," Kevin yelled after him. "You didn't lock your suitcase!"

"That's enough. You, come inside. Miss Periwinkle, call the police."

At this, Kevin darted forwards- but both Miss Periwinkle and the headmaster caught him, and dragged him into the office. The old lady went to call the police, and the headmaster shut the door and locked it." The police station is just around the corner. They'll be here ant minute, so get your story ready," he said grimly.

The policemen obviously recognized Kevin, so he was taken to the police station without any further demand from Mr. Wakefield.

"What's your name again? Carl? Curtis?" asked the commissioner.

"Kevin!"

"Kevin. This is your fourth crime. And now you're a teen. We've gone against the zero tolerance rule for you, so you're going to detention for sure now."

"I swear it wasn't me! That guy just came in, took his papers and shit and walked off!"

"And you didn't bother stopping him?"

Kevin was silent for two seconds."Why? Why should I?"

"Because then you wouldn't have landed in this mess!" The officer sighed. "If you did it or not, you still committed ore crimes than the number recorded here. So either take it as detention for previous crimes, or detention for not being a good man and stopping the thief." said the policeman curtly. He suddenly grabbed him by the neck and pushed him into a cell. "You're staying here overnight. I'm contacting the detention school to ship you off as fast as they could…and I'm gonna tell them to give you a very long sentence."


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: This chapter will be a lil boring. (Aww heck- this is actually the most annoying chapter) But read it! Reading is good for you. :D

Disclaimer: If I owned Ben 10, I won't have to go to medical school- I'd be quite rich already.

(Means I don't own Ben 10)

"Good morning everyone!" said Gwen's dad. He'd just come in from work.

"You're in an awfully good mood," noted her mum groggily. He sat down at the table.

"Well, just before I left the office I got an e-mail from Wakefield. He said he's lost 'the big news' along with some papers. Good thing too, our company is quite behind now, it'd be nice if we both leveled up." He continued in a softer tone. "But I shouldn't be too happy. Wakefield may lose his job. He's my friend after all-but the way he was talking about his discovery it sounded way too good too be true. He could've gotten into trouble if it turned out to be something really dumb."

Gwen barely paid attention to all this.

After breakfast, her mum dropped her to school on her way to work. She immediately went to her classroom to finish her math homework that she forgot to finish last night. From the corridor, she heard a familiar wail. Susana was moaning about something again.

"Oh Marie, I may have to move! I won't be seeing you ever again… god knows where we might move… I hate that guy! What's his problem, snooping into other people's stuff? And because of that I have to suffer…" Thankfully, the bell rang and drowned out her last cry.

In history class, Gwen asked Caren if Sue really was leaving.

"She is? Let's pray so…"replied Caren. Gwen asked her friends again at lunchtime.

"Ooh, yeah, I know," piped up Penelope. "I came in early this morning, and I went in the bathroom to tie up my hair, it was such a mess- well, The Two come in, so I hid in a cubicle. Sue says some teenager stole many important papers of her father's. Here, in front of the principal's office. The guy's caught, but he isn't willing to give them back. His name's Kevin, I heard, and now he's in detention school. "

"Then what's this shit about them moving?" asked Caren.

"Don't you get it?" said Tyra. "Her dad would probably be fired for loosing that information. Most probably some rival company hired that guy to steal the stuff. What's the boy gonna do with papers? She's just making a big deal outta nothing, I don't think they'll move or anything."

"Shame…It'd have been a great reason to have a party…"said Amber.

"Umm, what's that guy's name again?" asked Gwen carefully.

"Kevin. She said so. Said her dad was yelling is name out."

"God, like father like daughter. Both over reactive." commented Caren.

"It must've been really important to him," said Tyra thoughtfully.

"Eh?"

"Oh, I meant, the papers. They must have been really important to him to throw a tantrum over it."

"His loss, our gain then." said Veronica. "If it's really bad, and if his company sues him, Susana may be out by the beginning of the next term."

"In time for the school project!" said Penny excitedly. "Shouldn't they tell us about the project sometime now?"

"Yeah. We're six and that's the max limit. And this time no group splitting. "said Veronica. "Never again..."

"It wasn't so bad-"started Tyra.

"My group got a nine outta twenty! Pen and I did all the work! You guys at least got above twelve," said Veronica, a bit heated.

"Whose idea was it to split in the first place?" asked Caren suddenly.

"The teacher split us we were fighting in class, remember?" said Tyra.

"You lot are weird." said Gwen finally.

They soon got their p project topic in their English class- famous English writers. They all gathered afterschool to talk about it.

"Shakespere!" said Penny immediately.

"Nah, everyone will choose him." Said veronica.

"Tolkien?" said Gwen randomly. Her mind was somewhere else.

"Please, his books are way too much. Besides we haven't read them a lot."

"A female writer would be good."

"Jane Austen?"

"Nope. I know a better one. "said Amber."Agatha Christie. We've all read some of her books. Her life story's pretty good- and who doesn't like a good mystery book?"

"Yeah!" They all nodded. Except Gwen.

"It's decided. I'll go tomorrow and sign up our names. Most we could do now is gather up everything we know about her and her work. Right people?" said Veronica.

"We'll need her books and biographies….isn't there a movie about a book of hers?"

Gwen was barely listening. "Uh guys the bus is here, I'll be going now. Don't worry Vera, I'll do your work."

"Come on then Gwen," said Amber suddenly.

"Aren't your parents gonna pick you up?"Gewn asked.

"Amber and I are going to stop by a library near you house. It's got the whole collection." said Tyra. "I just phoned my mum and told her not to come."

They got onto the bus, and made their way to the back." Tyra, gimme your phone, I gotta call my dad." said Amber. After she finished her call, she sat down next to Gwen.

"Gwen. You're thinking something," she said.

"Of course I am, we're always thinking something-"

"I meant you're really preoccupied something. You were barely listening to us while we were planning for the project. We noticed that-"

"-And be glad the other three didn't." continued Tyra. "This project means a lot- you heard Vera and Pen. They both worked so hard last year- but thanks to the other four useless dumb asses they lost. Even The Two beat them." Both had serious look on their faces.

"I was that obvious, eh?" asked Gwen sheepishly.

"Not really. We covered up for you."

"But it seems you were really concerned about that boy, Kevin." said Amber finally. Actually, Amber was just trying to pick up random subjects with her to see how she'd react. Gwen's face told her she hit the bull's eye.

"Yes?" said Amber.

"Yeah. You're right. I was…Five years ago, my Grandpa took me and my cousin Ben on a cross-country trip. We stopped here for some time, and Ben met this street boy called Kevin. They were pals first, but then he turned out to be too rough and stuff, so they broke up. But listen-"and she told them about how he'd helped her that day. She conveniently left out that he took her locket.

"So I'm just curious you know? 'Cause he's not such a bad guy," she said." I seriously don't think he'll steal tings like that. Not that type- just a petty criminal sort."

Tyra seemed happy with her reason. Amber didn't.

That night, Gwen was on the internet, looking up information for her project. Just for fun, she decided to hack into Mr. Wakefield's e-mail to see if she could guess what the 'amazing' news of his was about. She knew it was illegal-_but what the heck, _she thought .The password was annoyingly easy- susy0408- probably Susana's birthdate.His inbox box was full of letters from his company, some from family and friends. She opened a recent one from his company.

"We're glad you finished your assigned work before its due date. We're also very anxious to hear about your recent discovery."

_That gave so much away,_ she thought sarcastically. She opened the sent box and opened the letter that was sent to the company.

"I've finished my work and I'll be arriving shortly. I also found a very curios program, which can be implanted on our system. This program will be extremely valuable .please pass this personal message to Stevenson:

Anyways, living in England nowadays seems insanely gregarious. No, after Louise Desmond evicted the electronic connection team, obviously Rachel wanted to stay here. But we do go to visit her mother sometimes."

Gwen stared at the screen. There was a hidden message inside. Definitely. She printed it out, and kept it aside till she finished her work. She got back to the letter later, before she was going to bed. After some trial and error, she managed to break the code; it was a fairly simple one- the first letter of every word from "Anyway" till "Rachel" spelt out a word. It spelt:

ALIEN SIGNAL DETECTOR.

Now it was Gwen's problem.

A/N: I'm gonna remind you every alternate chapter to REVIEW PLEASE!!

This is solely for : Ben doesn't appear at all in this story- but before you jump to some other story I'd like to tell you that I'm working on a sequel and Ben's in it. It's _almost_ done- but first I've to type it in and yeah, see how this story goes.

As you see, I need encouragement: D

Come on, do a good deed and give a review!


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I don't own Ben 10.Therefore the reason why Kevin doesn't show up so much on the series.

Gwen wondered if what she was doing was correct. She'd gone over her plan a thousand times in her head, and it sounded well enough. As she waited for the commissariat, a few other insecurities presented themselves in her head.

_What if this is just a false alarm? Maybe he really didn't find anything. I should tell Grandpa, and leave him to handle the rest of the job._

_No, _said thestronger part of her mind._ I can do this myself. I just need a teensy bit of help. And I'm also doing him a favor._

"Come in please," the officer called out.

_This is your last chance! _Her mind screamed_. Turn around and run back like a headless chicken_ _.Maybe_ _humans were meant to find aliens now._ _Don't interfere with fate._ She went in anyways.

"Yes, miss, what can I do for you?" he asked

"I've heard that there's a boy named Kevin, who is currently under your custody. He's about sixteen, black hair, dark eyes…"

"Yes, him. We shipped him off to detention just yesterday."

"Well, the crime he committed- well it took place in my school. We know each other. We'd just met that day even. How he got dragged into this I have no idea, but I don't think he did it."

"Miss, do you know that you r- er - friend has stolen before?"

"Petty crimes, sir." _Yeah right!_ her mind sneered. But she continued. "He's a street kid after all. He's being punished for a crime he didn't do. And he really is a good person. Plus I don't think running away with other people's files are …his thing." _Yep, he'd rather kill them._

"We've placed him in various homes and even kept him in jail for sometime," explained the officer. "Yet he escapes. Give him a few more years, and he'll become a full- fledged master criminal. So that's why I want to catch him before he gets out of hand."

"He likes his freedom…"_okay, I'm outta ideas._

"You're quite up for him, aren't you?" he asked suddenly. "How come I haven't seen you before?"

"We hardly meet but on the street, I just knew him on and off for thee years." she lied.

"Okay then, you're saying we should just let him go scoot free."

"Oh no, I'm planning to get him return the papers."

"And how'd he know where they are?"

"His problem," she shrugged. "But it's a chance, and he'll take it. Like he has any other options."

"Look, miss, I'll have to phone the man who last the file and ask him on his. Come back again tomorrow, and we'll see what we can do. I'll be calling Kevin here too."

"Thank you, sir."

"I'm only doing this 'cause I've noticed he's been off crime for the past three years. Now all I want to do is get him into a good home where they can keep him locked up safe."

A few seconds after this frank comment, Gwen replied, honestly, this time, "You're a good man, sir."

"That's what I'm supposed to be. Anyways, there will be one less vagabond to keep my eye on."

The next day, Gwen was back at the police station. Wakefield hadn't come yet, so she decided to go talk to Kevin. She approached the cell uneasily, wondering what he'd think if he saw her. He was sitting at the corner of the cell, examining his hand.

"Kevin?" she called out nervously.

"Not you again," he said. He turned to her. "Why are you here?"

"To help you."

"Please- don't bother hiding it. You need me to do something for you, yeah?"

"Kinda…I'll explain later. But first tell me what happened. Honestly."

Kevin re explained everything. Gwen could see it was taking a lot for him not to start blasting at her. _He's changed, a bit._ As he finished, Mr. Wakefield entered. The officer, came over, unlocked Kevin, and explained to them all why he called them. Once he'd finished, Wakefield turned to Kevin.

"You're lucky- Mr. Wakefield doesn't care if you're guilty or not, he just wants his property back."

"For the hundredth time-I'm not guilty," said Kevin glumly. "It was that guy…"

"Why should you care if someone calls you a crook or not? Just get my things back, punk!"

"You shouldn't talk to someone like that." started Gwen.

"I can call that freak whatever I want…"Immediately Kevin pushed the man and he knocked against the desk. The commissioner grabbed him by the arm and started to pull him away.

"You don't behave your age… "sneered Kevin. "You're pathetic…why are you so jumpy about this thing anyways? Something in there you don't want others to find?"

"Enough!" roared the commissioner." Kevin, I bought you here for only one thing." He pointed to a paper on his desk. "I've written up a temporary release letter. You'll return Mr. Wakefield's folder in seven days or else you're back in here. You three, sign it.

Mr. Wakefield scribbled his signature on the paper. Gwen first read the letter, and then looked up at the commissioner. He noticed where she stopped, and shrugged. "Can't help it. It's orders." he replied.

"Good thing Kevin doesn't know how to read," said Gwen, and signed her name. The commissioner turned to Kevin. "Thumbprint?" he inquired. Kevin snatched the paper and pen from Gwen's hands. He read the first three lines, then gave up and signed his name.

"I'm not as dumb as you think," he said throwing the pen at Wakefield, and walked away.

Once out, Gwen ran to catch up with Kevin. Then she tripped on a raised pavement tile and fell on him.

"Oww…what the-"he noticed Gwen, on him.

"Hee hee…tile, you see…tripped," stammered Gwen lamely.

"You're heavy." He got up, and pulled Gwen up by the arm. He looked at her directly. "Look, I saved your butt, you got mine outta jail. So we're even. I don't need help. So leave me." he made to leave, but Gwen stood in front of him.

"I'm going to help you, because you need my help… and I need something too."

"Who said I was returning anything?" he smirked.

"I did…and you are going to."

He narrowed his eyes, a bit wary, a bit confused. "It's about the aliens," said Gwen finally.

"So that's why…being a hero too, eh?" he turned and looked around, and said loudly, "You want to talk about this here? In the middle of the street? I know a better place."

Gwen smiled. He has accepted her help.

It was about four, and Gwen had promised she'd be home from the library by max five o' clock. Luckily, the next day was a weekend, so she could start her plans right away. They were sitting on the rocks underneath a bridge. Directly in front of them was the grey sea.

So far, she'd told Kevin about the signal detector. In return, Kevin summarized what he had been doing for the last four years. He'd escaped the null void zone, worked with Vilgax for about a year then left him. Then he was on his own, planet-jumping till he finally lost his mutated form, and returned to earth.

As he spoke, Gwen noticed that he dropped his hostile attitude, and spoke in a less sarcastic manner. It seemed as though his time out all alone had taught him a lot… He was now talking about what remaining powers he had left.

"I have that dog's senses-I can smell, see and hear better than most people. I don't get tired too fast, and I don't get hurt too bad neither. I can kick ass just fine- but it's nothing compared to before. And I can burn people and withstand heat like that fire guy- you saw what I did to that guy's arm, yeah?"

Gwen nodded.

"I think I can breathe underwater." He suddenly took Gwen's hand and put them at the side of his neck. Gwen was shocked at just how so quickly he got along with her. "Feel that? Gill slits. But I don't know if they work or not. They look like thin scars, so they're not really noticeable. But it feels scary. And it hurts like hell when someone punches me there. I can run real fast, like XLR8- or maybe it's just natural ability."

"And your other power? The energy absorbing thing?"

"Oh, it's there. But hardly there. Before I could take in and give out any amount, now there seems to be a… capacity-I mean-"

"I get it. How about Stinkfly?" she asked.

"See any wings? Duh no. I've completely lost him, even the stink." He actually laughed. "And I don't have the ghost guy either," he said.

"Since when did you have Ghostfrak?"

"Not in the mutated form- before that."

"And Greymatter? The little grey frog guy?"

"Who?" Kevin looked puzzled. "I had only nine before I mutated-and I was made up of eight when I was mutated."

"Makes sense," said Gwen quietly.

"What?"

"I now understand why you were acting like a total doofus all the time. Greymatter makes you smarter. You didn't have Greymatter so-" Gwen realized that this wasn't Ben she was talking to, and stopped. Kevin looked annoyed, as though he wanted to hit her.

"But you know, "she said tentatively, "You've still got quite a good mix of the abilites.You've got a bit of all the powers…and you look normal."

He smiled disbelievingly. "Still a freak… a broken freak…"

"Kev, drop it- we're all different, so according to your theory, we're all freaks." said Gwen, irritated. He was quiet for a minute as though thinking over what she said.

"Why do you trust me so easily?" he asked suddenly.

"Actually, I should be asking you that."

"'Cuz you're really trying to help me. And I asked you first."

Gwen didn't know how to reply." Well…I need your help- and now… you seem changed. You don't seem so bent on getting revenge for everything, like before. That's a good thing. A very good thing." She looked at her watch. "Hey… gotta go, see you then." She got up.

"Hey, wait!" said Kevin suddenly. "What's your name again?"

Gwen stared at him. "You didn't know all this time? It's Gwen."

"Gwen…" He repeated. "See you later then…as though I have any choice." Gwen shook her head and left. When she turned around to look at him again, Kevin was still sitting there, looking out into the sea.

A/N: cozy chapter, innit? But I found Gwen's argument with the police a bit stupid. And Gwen would probably never want to break out Kev, anyways-but since it's my story…

Yeah and I now realized that Kev that only Greymatter's eye in the mutated form- but I don't think he notices that.


	6. Chapter 6

A/N: sixth time i'm tellin you I don't own Ben 10!!

"Kevin? Where are you? This is really scary…"said Gwen.

Kevin had told her to come to the subway again, and to check for a crevice under in a tunnel. That crevice turned out to be the opening of a hollowed, cave-like room. It was just about the size of a classroom. It felt damp and humid. By the aid of a small torchlight suspended from the ceiling, she could make out some boxes and a broken sofa near the corner of the room. Also, there was what seemed to look like a network of pipes covering a darker side of the room.

"Hey," said Kevin suddenly. He was standing outside. "You came before me." He came into the room. "My new home. The other one was trashed when I came back. "

"You could use some light," she muttered.

"Don't need it. So, what do we do today?"

"Okay. You say you have Wildmutt's senses, and you kinda remember how the guy…smells like. Then go doggy and sniff him out."

"That's it?"

"For today. If we find his house, we'll try breaking in. then we'll see what we can do…let's just get outta here," she grabbed Kevin and pushed towards the 'door'.

Once they were out, Kevin said,"You know, I can't just pick it up like that…we'll have to walk around a bit."

"I'm fine with that," said Gwen. They walked around, changing directions and returning to places, they'd checked before. They didn't talk- Kevin didn't want to talk- he just "huh"ed and "yeah"ed anything that Gwen said.

"Why do you wear that lock, Kevin?"

"Yeah," he said. He was looking around, trying to guess what way to go next.

"You're not listening," Gwen poked him on his back.

"What?" Kevin turned to her, annoyed.

"Why do you wear that?" she grabbed his chain, to show him the lock, but he slapped her hand away, and stated walking again.

"Cuz I like it. Nothing more, nothing less. Now come on. I think I've found his house."

They crossed the street, and walked around some buildings. Most of the apartments in this area were old, and had ten or less floors.

"It's here…along this line," Kevin said excitedly. He slowed down at every building, and finally stopped at a small, five storied building.

"Here. It's gotta be here." he said, and went inside. Gwen followed.

"You'd think a spy can afford more than this," said Gwen.

"Probably puts it in his bank account." He walked towards a flight of stairs.

"Great, stairs…Damn these old buildings. Can we just ask someone which floor he's on? You could describe him…"Gwen stopped and sat down on the steps. Kevin stopped and stood beside her.

"Nope…You're that tired?"

"I've been up all night."

"I'm up all night every night."

"I'm not a street kid like you, I'm not used to it…and I don't have the power to absorb energy from other things to replenish my own…so shut it." Gwen was feeling very crabby. She'd been working late to catch up with her increased workload._ Why did I take all the courses offered?_

"Oh? All right then," said Kevin. The words were correct, but his tone was mocking. Gwen turned around, happy to have someone to blast at. But before she could say anything, Kevin scooped her up and XLR8ed up the stairs.

"Could've done that earlier?" she asked, as he set her on her feet again.

"In the middle of the street, in front of the whole world? Nope." Kevin looked around. "Nope, not here." He picked her up again, and ran to the next floor. "Not here," he said, and went up again. "Here?" asked Gwen.

"Next floor, I think." He went up again. "I suppose, but let's check the last floor anyways."

"Not here," said Kevin. "Fourth floor then."

Kevin stopped, and put her down in front of a door. He indicated the bell. "Ring, then come hide if he opens the door."

"If he sees me?" asked Gwen.

"I'll punch him out," he said simply.

Gwen gulped, and rang the bell. Nobody came. She rang it again, and again and again. Still nobody. After some more times, Kevin cam out and put an ear to the door.

"Don't hear anything living inside… just electronic buzzing." Kevin drew back. "Stand back," he warned. "This really won't take a lot…but still." He was planning to battle-ram the door open.

"No wait- can we use a less forceful method? Like melting the hinges off, or something…"started Gwen.

"We can burn down the door! Yeah! It'd be so much easier-"

"I suggest we try melting it first."

"Fine…"Kevin placed his hands on the doorknob. For a few seconds nothing happened. Then the knob glowed, and stated to loose its shape. It took a minute, and soon there was a big gaping hole with the remnants of the doorknob dripping about its sides. Kevin then melted off the hinges, and then kicked the door open. It fell to the ground. He courteously motioned to Gwen to go in first.

"How polite of you," she commented, as she walked into the flat.

"In case of traps, detectors, wild animals and such. I'll be forewarned," he said pleasantly.

"Jerk." She looked around. They were in the living room of a small apartment. There was a door leading to the kitchen to the right, and another door to the left that probably led to the bedroom. They went entered the bedroom, and Gwen immediately ran to the computer at the corner of the room.

"What an idiot…he left it open…not even password-protected!" she exclaimed.

"Maybe he'll be back in a while." said Kevin. "In that case-"he started to push a heavy wooden table against the door.

"That won't be enough if he comes back," said Gwen as she furiously ran through his files.

"Highly doubt he'll come back. Soon."

"How do you know?"

"I just know," he said distractedly. He was flipping through a magazine.

"You can't read!"

"And you're not doing your work! And I can read. I know enough to get me through…what am I going to do reading stupid novels?"

Gwen was too busy to reply. Kevin that as an indication that she wasn't convinced.

"I can read alien. I know four alien languages," he pouted.

"And that's so gonna be helpful here," she replied. "Arrgh- there's nothing here!"

Kevin threw the book aside, and looked under the bed.

"What are you doing?" asked Gwen. Kevin didn't reply. He crept under the bed, and pushed out some cardboard boxes. He opened one, and pushed it towards Gwen.

"Obviously he won't keep the important stuff on the computer," he said factually. "He probably prints out all his orders and stuff, and deletes the soft copy on the computer, in case smart asses like you come and hack into it." He held out a folder, and Gwen could clearly see a letter dated a few months ago.

"I have no idea where you got your brain...but it's a really good one. I'm …impressed. How do-"

"Come on- it's logic! Everyone hides their stuff under their bed." he pushed out the last remaining boxes. Gwen eyed the whole lot.

"This is gonna take forever…"she said.

"Chop chop," replied Kevin and went back to his magazine. Gwen shifted through the boxes till she found the recently dated papers._ Thank god this guy is organized_, she thought.

Gwen read though one of the folders. "Hey you know what? Wakefield stole the other papers from some other guy using this same spy! It's hilarious… wait, this guy did this kinda thing a lot of times."

"Then why is Wakefield so against me? If he knew that this sorta thing can happen…"

"He's just a high strung jerk, forget it."

They were both silent for quiet a long time. "The commissioner was right," said Gwen suddenly.

"'Bout what?"

"He said you'd become a master criminal in a few years. "

"Cool."

"Not. And he says he's glad you were off crime for the past few years." Gwen looked at Kevin- but he was standing right in front of her. He put his hands on the arms of Gwen's chair, and bent down, so close that they were both nose to nose.

"I wasn't here for the past few years," he said, smirking. It took Gwen a few seconds to understand what he meant by that. Kevin straightened, and started to turn back. For some reason, Gwen felt extremely angry.

"You know what, I don't even know why I put up with you." she stated.

"Nor do I-"he said calmly.

"But I thought you might've changed-"

"I really haven't."

"And you don't even try! We gave you so many chances-"

"But I don't think I want to be a goody - goody two shoes."

"I'm here because I want to stop this madman from revealing all the aliens-"

"Cause you wanna be a hero just like-"

"Shut up! And you're here cuz I need your help. I won't be meeting you after this-"her face was livid.

Kevin shrugged. "I don't care, I never asked you to."

Gwen was still fuming. She turned her attention back to the folders, looking for recent dates.

"Where's my locket?" she asked suddenly.

"Sold it," he said simply.

"Made a good bargain out of it?" she asked bitterly.

"Nope, hardly was worth anything." He looked up to see the effect of his words. Gwen was still incensed… and a bit hurt. He smiled to himself. After a few more minutes, Gwen waved a paper.

"Finally. Okay, there's this guy, who asked the spy to get some stuff off Wakefield." She copied down the address.

"Are you sure? I mean, you'd expect some other guy to meet the spy and tell him about the job and stuff." said Kevin.

"You're right." she put down her pen. "Our approach is too simple."

"It's just too easy. We must be missing something." said Kevin.

Gwen nodded and shrugged. She'd been thinking the same thing.

"Okay, say we find out who took it," said Kevin. "Say we know where their office is and such. But do we even know that it's in there? What if-"

"It's someplace else…"groaned Gwen. "I should've called Grandpa…"

"Hold on. I wont be cleared!"

"Yes you will, you take this address to the police."

"No, I can't" Kevin said firmly.

"What?" Gwen was confused.

"I said that I'd return the file, not some address." he said. "Why, I can write out any dumbshit address and give it in- do you really think they'd take my word?"

"Oh, yeah," emembered Gwen. _Is __**Kevin**__ outsmarting me?_

"And second- if the police do recover the papers- they're gonna hand it over to Rakefied. long with the plans for the alien signal detector."

"Great…absolutely fantastic." Gwen mind was blank. She hadn't thought about all this. "So, what do you propose we do now, genius?"

"I was just pointing out the bugs…"

"bugs? You call them bugs? I- what- aaargh!" she hit the desk in frustration. Her temper was really flaring up these days.

"Look, if I knew how to smell out the file of something, I'd do it. But I really don't know what to do."

"No, all we need to know now is the location of the file," thought Gwen, forcing her brain to calm down. They both stopped bickering so they could think up a solution.

"Are you sure you don't have any special abilities or something?" he asked after a minute.

"No…"said Gwen slowly.

_No! _contradicted her mind automatically. She was very talented! Why, she could do magic!

A/N:I like this chapter.Do you?

Tell me!!!!!!

Go review.


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: I don't own Ben 10.If I did, I'd be a great cartoonist. (No, I can't draw to save my life)

_Please, please be here,_ pleaded Gwen silently, as she searched through the storage cupboard.

She definitely didn't put it in her bedroom, otherwise she would've remembered. She moved some more things aside, and took out a cardboard box full of her old books and notes. Finally, she found it- Charmcaster's spell book. Well, her spell book, now. Gwen had put it away, three years ago, when she finally decided that she had no real use of it. She used to practice some basic spells to amuse herself, but slowly she stopped using it altogether. Even though the future showed her that she'd become a master magician, she didn't rely too heavily on it. _The future can be influenced by simple things we do. Maybe I wasn't supposed to help Kevin..._

She shook off these gloomy thoughts, and went back to work. She looked through the first and last few pages for an index, but there was none. _Maybe its cuz the pages aren't numbered, genius. _said her head. But the voice wasn't hers- it was Kevin's.

She carefully scanned each page, and after a good fifteen minutes she found what she wanted – a locating sphere.

"This incantation, when applied to the proper concoction. would produce a floating sphere which is only visible to the magician's eyes. The spell caster must always focus his mind on the desired object-otherwise the sphere will shrink and disappear."

Underneath this introduction, there was a list of the ingredients. Gwen's face paled as she read through it. She was counting on Kevin to get the ingredients tomorrow- she never thought it'd require much, but she was very wrong. Where would she find a small piece of topaz? Or a solid gold bowl? And she definitely didn't know how to get the ashes of a flying animal from.

_Stupid book_, thought Gwen.

The next day, Gwen woke up early so she could meet Kevin. She had waited till her mum's car was out of sight before she dashed off to the parking lot behind her school. The parking was behind the football pitch, so it was a very open area. Actually she deliberately chose a very open area. Frankly, she still didn't trust Kevin. Kevin was there, slouched against the wall.

"Kevin! I found a spell- a locating spell. But I need some stuff to make the potion. And they're hard to get… some of them are expensive-"

"I'll get them, no problem," grinned Kevin. He seemed very happy for some reason.

Gwen pulled out a paper from her pocket, and handed it to him.

"So, we're gonna do this thing…where, exactly?" he said, inspecting the list.

"Your place would probably be the best…I told my parents I'd be at the library." Gwen was a bit ashamed. Lying to her parents wasn't something she did a lot.

"Right," he looked up at her. "You should be going," he remarked.

"Yeah.Good luck, then." she said timidly, as she turned and ran back to school.

As Gwen reached the front gates, she saw another figure- of a girl- running towards her.She stopped as she realized who it was.

"Amber! What are you doing here?"

"I should be asking you that." her tone was uncharacteristically cold.

"My mom dropped me there-"

"I don't see you bag."

_Damn it._ "all right- I was meeting a friend."

"A boy named Kevin, is that right?"

"How-"

"I saw you from upstairs," she said, pointing up to the building." I was just looking out of the window when I saw you with that boy." she looked at Gwen. her eyes had a pleading look. "Gwen, I really, really have a bad feeling about this boy. I know I haven't met him- but trust me! If I'm mad at you, it's 'cause I care for you."

Gwen was very touched by this, but nevertheless, she had a job to do. "I- thanks .But don't worry. I know what I'm doing."_ After this all is over, I'm never ever going near Kevin._ _It's _not_ like I promised to be his best friend or something._

The bell rang. "Let's go," said Amber softly, as she turned and walked away.

At the end of the day, Gwen carefully made her way back to Kevin's. She reached the crevice- but now it was blocked by something wooden. She knocked on it. Two seconds later, it got shifted aside. Gwen entered.

"I got your stuff, all of them. The herbs were the hardest to get."

"And the gold bowl?"

"The easiest. Antique shop. But it's only lined with gold."

"That's what I wanted. And we're returning it, too." she walked over to a stool, and placed the bowl on it. She took out the little spell book. "Kevin, I need some light here to read."

He flicked on a torch, and held it over her as she read, and prepared the mixture.

"How long?" said Kevin after some time.

"Done. Now we gotta let it stew over fire for ten minutes, or till it boils. Then all I have to do it say the spell, and the locating bubble will form from the liquid."

"Here," he said, lighting a bunch of twigs and leave on the floor. "We'll have to put the bowl over it though…maybe some bricks should do it."

"Wait, I know a levitation spell." She pointed at the bowl. "_Levis"_ the bowl rose and Gwen directed it to the fire, setting it a bit above the flames.

Kevin stared in amazement. "Wow…that's freaky. But really cool. "

Gwen blushed a bit. "Yeah, I like doing magic too, I do small spells and stuff… but I'm not really interested."

"Not interested?" said Kevin incredulously. "If I were you, I'd learn everything I can! You could make yourself really powerful, you know!"

"Well- You're not me. "She leaned against the wall. "And by the way, I figured out why you've suddenly become so smart."

"I've always been smart."

"Street-wise, maybe. But you were never practical, like when…" she paused and looked at him. Kevin raised an eyebrow, as though daring her to go on. "I mean, you were always so busy prattling about how nobody could control you and all, you missed quite a lot of…opportunites.Admit it, you were kind of stupid."

Kevin looked very put out by this. Obviously he was recalling the null void zone. "Right then, what _is_ making me 'smart'?"

"Greymatter.He's the little frog alien. Really smart." Kevin still looked annoyed, insulted that Gwen pinned his wit as an acquired trait. Gwen knew having him in a bad mood would be a bad idea. "Um- you spent a lot of time on your own, so that probably helped too." she said hurriedly.

Kevin was still silent. After a moment he spoke.

"You're-you're kinda right about that. The Kevin you knew was a doofus compared to the one standing here. I seen so many thing- nothing really freaks me out, I understand everything properly. All the places I have been to, all the aliens I met and fought…I've learned that sometimes that keeping your head down and thinking is a lot better … you have to think to win.

Gwen stared at him for a moment. _This is Kevin, right? The boy who never thinks?_

"I've learnt that screaming and punching like a maniac won't get you anywhere."

"Least you learnt that by yourself," said Gwen, smiling." Ben had people to tell him that and still couldn't get it through his tick skull…that makes you ten times smarter than him."

"I think that's an insult, then," said Kevin. "You're calling average if I'm ten times smarter than him."

They laughed. "I know this sounds very random," said Gwen after some time. "But did you...er… happen to meet anyone you like?" Kevin raised his eyebrow again, but now there was a slight smile on his face.

"I mean, there are females in outer space…well, aliens, but still." her voiced trailed off, not knowing what to say. _That was a pathetic question, she thought. _She turned away, as if searching for a reason for this rather personal question.

"Now that you mention it… well, I never thought about it," he said easily.

"Too busy trying to get back to earth, huh?"

"Something like that. What makes you think some alien chick would fall for me?"

"Well, there was this alien who liked Grandpa…"

"I was a mutated human who had random parts of ten aliens," he stated, "and I was about thirteen, which is very, very, very young compared to alien age. I was also being chased across various galaxies by Vilgax and other bounty hunters-"

"I get it, I get it!," said Gwen.

"But you're right; I have been missing out on a lot. Wanna help me catch up?"

A few seconds passed in silence. Gwen spun around, to face him. "Uh, no!" she said, disgusted.

"You're a really pretty girl, Gwen," he drawled. "I'm amazed no one asked you out yet."

"Well thank you, but it's cause I don't give them the opportunity to."

"You've given me lots of time."

"Not interested." _Even if I wanted to, _she thought_ I wouldn't, because you won't be serious. You don't understand love._

"Oh?" said Kevin suddenly.

"What?"

"Nothing… but I'm serious," he said, grinning.

"Wha- OK, what are you up to? What exactly do you want?" She knew, but she decided to play dumb anyways.

"You're a really good friend, Gwen," he said, his voice suddenly soft and deep. "But I think you're only nice to me 'cause you need me to help you." He walked across the room to Gwen. "so after this all is over, you'd leave me."

"I wouldn't exactly leave you…"

"But I don't want to be left alone. I want a friend like you. Now and forever." They were both extremely close. Gwen tried to back away, to only feel the wall against her back.

"Will you be my friend? Will you…"Kevin's eyes looked away, and a slight cynical smile lit up his face. "Will you show me the right way?"

Gwen gulped.

"You had a chance. You should've listened to Ben…"

"I should've. Then again, I might not turn out to be what I am today if I did."

"You would've been better."

"Or worse. So Gwen, what do you say?"

"To what?"

The room was awfully hot now, and there was a sweet and heavy scent in the air that made Gwen feel drowsy. She felt her arms being pinned against the wall, and watched the grey clouds of smoke floating by as Kevin's lips touched her neck. She couldn't care. Or at least, she wished she couldn't care. She roughly pushed him away, and ran towards the cauldron.

Usually if some guy did that to her, she'd happily break his neck. Now, she felt ashamed, and wished she'd never met him. S he wished she had listened to Amber.

"Gwen…"Kevin called out- but he wasn't calling her.

"It was only supposed to boil for 15 minutes," she said shakily. she just wanted to get away from him.

"It's been 10 minutes, Gwen," Kevin said. There was a hint of annoyance in his voice .He stayed there, leaning against the wall as if nothing happened. Was he expecting her to come back to him?

Five more minutes passed in awkward silence. Gwen managed to venture to the edge of the cauldron. It's ready, she said softly. She doused the fire with some water, as Kevin walked to her. He peered expectantly into the thick, blue –black liquid.

"It's supposed to be like that?" he asked after a second.

"Yes. The potion's actually colorless, but I had to use the blue dye so I could see the sphere."

Gwen took out the spell book again. She felt glad to be doing something. "Now, I'll say the spell that will actually produce the sphere. It'll emerge from the liquid, but only I'd be able to see it."

She uttered the incarnation, and waited. " The spell's re- useable by the way. a little of the liquid disappears every time we make a sphere."

"Good. and how long will the bubble exist?" asked Kevin conversationally.

"Till it's job is done." As she said this, a large, clear blue bubble floated out of the liquid. Gwen watched it as it floated in mid air, between the two of them.

"What are you looking at?" asked Kevin. To him, it seemed as though Gwen was staring at him.

"The sphere." she raised her hand to touch it. "It's amazingly solid- it didn't pop when I touched it. "She decided to test it. _Where is the sofa?_

The sphere diligently floated over to rest on the seat of the sofa.

"It works. I just tried it on the sofa." informed Gwen.

"Hurrah."

They both were silent, Kevin watching Gwen, Gwen watching the bubble as she tried it on different objects in the room. The bubble was perfectly solid- it couldn't pass though the wall when she asked for the sun- it merely bounced off the walls, till Gwen called it back when it went towards the crevice.

"Gwen," said Kevin. Gwen heard from the tone of his voice that what he was going to talk about was business and not…something else.

"Look at me when I talk to you."

"What?"

"First thing-if someone's gotta go get the plans it's gotta be me. This is my problem- I can take it from here. Besides, you can't come along, you'll be a hinderance."There was no sham in his voice, no apology for calling her a hindrance.

"No! I'm coming! "

"You'll be no use to me. we're bound to get caught. You did your part, let me do mine."

"You can't use the bubble without me," she said happily. Happlily because there was no way Kevin could outsmart her here...

"I've already thought about that," he said sweetly. "You just said the bubble was solid, yeah? So if we spray it with paint, I'd be able to see it."

"It won't work- it's a magical object- such simple things won't affect a magical object!"

"This is logic- logic overrides magic." said Kevin firmly. He went over to a cardboard box and rummaged through it. He pulled out a can of spray paint

"Where is it?" he asked. Gwen glumly pointed to the floor. Kevin hit the area with a shower of red paint, and the sphere became visible.

"Told you, "he said, smiling. The weight of the paint made the bubble drop down a bit, but in a second it was back floating up in the air.

"Others can see it too," said Gwen glumly

"I already got it covered."

"How?"

"It's enough I that know, this part is none of your business," he said, his voice suddenly

menancing. "If I want to keep it that way, don't interfere."

"This is not fair,"

"I thought your friend told you to stay away from me?"

Gwen looked up in surprise. "Which one?" she asked cautiously._ Maybe he was making it up?_

"The blond one, I don't know her name." he said easily.

"When-?"

"She ran into me today. Dunno how she recognized me though," he added. "Point is, you shouldn't stay with me."

"Then what were you rambling on about …ten minutes ago?"

"Whoa, Gwen, I didn't realize you felt that way for me.," he said, with a sideways grin.

_All right, that's it!_ I want go along with you- so you don't double cross me!"

"Me? That's very insulting. Sneakiness has never been my style Gwen." he was taunting her.

"If I wanted to do something to you, don't you think I'd have done it already?"

"Then I wouldn't have helped you, and you wouldn't be free."

They both stared at each other for a few seconds. "I doubt it'd matter. I'd have found a way to

break out, without you." he said finally.

"Fine. You go alone, you do what you think is best," she aid grudgingly.

Kevin took out a little box and but the bubble inside, while Gwen packed up her things.

She didn't bother saying goodbye, but as she climbed through the crevice, she could've sworn she heard a "thanks".

A/N: there are many things about this story that annoys me, and you can see them all perfectly well in this chapter.

Both Kev and Gwen sound wildly out of character. Really, since when was Gwen this forgiving? And since when did Kev start being patient?

It doesn't follow the story anymore. I completed this in the middle of season 3, and that time this story was pretty good. Now…well, keeping the world in the dark about the existence of aliens doesn't seem like such a big thing now. So the point of the story is kinda lost.

You can see that I've bent quite a lot of things in my favor. (e.g.: Gwen finding out about Wakefield's discovery.)

Well, those are the main three things. I'd just like to know from you guys about how you feel about it, so please, just leave a lil comment about those things in ur review. Yes, flames also accepted.

Lol- it sounds as though I'm doing this for work rather than fun. No, I just like to do whatever I d0 properly- a writer's worst critic is himself, I suppose. I had a lot of fun writing this story, and the great thing about fanfiction is that you know others like what you do, too.

Thanks for reading this long note!


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer:I don't own Ben 10.I'm wayy too lazy to work.(No seriously, can you imagine trying to come up with a new and exciting story every week?I'm not that creative.)

Gwen wouldn't have been able to go with Kevin even if he had said yes; she was due at Penny's house that afternoon, to work on their school project. Penny had told her to come in quite early- at around eleven to start working on it.

Still, a small part of Gwen wanted to sneak behind Kevin._ To check what he was doing? Or just to be with him?_ Gwen purposely hit her head. The nerve of him! That kiss really got her head scrambled. Albeit a mere touch of his lips to her skin than a kiss, she still felt very…unnerved.

She decided to direct her attention away from yesterday's fiasco.

"Mum! There's no milk!" said Gwen.

"Then go get some honey," replied her mom, as she read through the pnewspaper. "you're going over to Penny's today, aren't you?"

"Yes," said Gwen as she got out some money from a drawer.

"Till?"

"About five," she replied. "Why?"

"No, nothing- it's just that you're out for so long nowdays," said her mum.

Gwen had a slightly guilty look on her face.

"I don't blame you for wanting to stay out. It's boring in, isn't it?"

"Yeah, kinda,"she agreed quickly. "Bye!"

Gwen took the lift down. As she stepped out-

"Kevin?"

"Hello," he said amiably, stepping back into the dark. "We have a problem."

He opened the box in which he'd kept the sphere in- except it wasn't there.

"Don't tell me it escaped!" exclaimed Gwen

"It was in the box, I never opened it till this morning- it couldn't have escaped."

"Ah,'"remembered Gwen a moment latwer. "I'm supposed to keep thinking about what I'm looking for, otherwise it'll shrink."

"Think of something then."

"Right. Where's Kevin?" she muttered. The bubble suddenly seemed to grow out of thin air- then when it was quite big it started to float upwards.

"Okay, we know it's there," said Kevin as he hurriedly grabbed it and put it back inside.

"Now, just keep thinking about something you've lost, all right?"

"I know what to do," said Gwen, a bit bitterly. Imagine, HIM, telling ME what to do. "Do

you know what to do? And how to do it?" she asked.

"It's all in here, I told you I've already figured out everything." he said, tapping the side of his head. And you don't need to know about it."

Gwen was going to ask, but she gave up. "All right- I'm going to start concentrating on the e file at two exactly, so you be ready."

"No problem," he smiled. He quickly turned to leave.

As he went, Gwen just realized something. "Hey!" she called- but Kevin had already XLRated out. _How does he know where I live?_

Gwen was having a great time at Penny's, "working". Their original idea was to start working on their project right away, and continue working till lunch. Obviosly they didn't follow it- at one they had only completed half the work and they were all sprawled across the sofa in front of the TV.

"Let's watch a movie- then we'll get back to work," said Veronica idly.

Gwen was more than content with the idea; it would leave her mind free to focus on the folder. She and Kevin had decided that at two, Kevin would set for the company building, and let loose the sphere. Gwen would be concentrating on the folder, so the sphere would lead him to it. He should be able to complete it in an hour.

At one fifty-eight Kevin was standing in the shadow of a large corporate building. He had the sphere clenched in his hand. He coolly walked into the lobby- nobody noticed him.

He looked into the full length mirror on the wall to his side. Sure enough, he wasn't there.

While talking to Gwen about his powers, he didn't mention that he could turn invisible, and also turn objects around him invisible. He kept that back, in case it would be useful later. That was how he knew where Gwen lived- one fine day he just followed Gwen back home. And that's also how he heard the conversation between Gwen and Amber outside school.

_But that not the only powers that ghostfreak left me, _he thought.

He let go of the sphere. It just hung there, in mid-air, invisible to everyone but him. In a second it started to move diagonally upwards- he grabbed it and made his way to the stairs. He let it go again, and watched it as it drifted upwards. He slowly XLRated with it, so as not to get it lost.

It led him to the fourteenth floor. As he grabbed it again, he noticed that it had shrunk.

_Don't leave me now, Gwen,_ he thought.

Gwen was bored and sleepy. Exteremely bored and sleepy. Romantic stuff never really held her attention. She looked at her watch. Only two thirty!

"Pen could you get me a cushion?" said Amber

"Tyra, be a dear…"said Penny.

"Ronnie, please…I can't get up…I can't feel my legs…move your foot Amber!" said Tyra groggily.

"No way am I missing this bit. Umm, Caren…"

"Pen, you're the host, we're the guests- do your job."

"All right, I'll go get it," said Gwen. "This film is killing me…need to go stretch my legs."

"Thanks, you'll find some in my room," said Penny. "And get me a glass of water too…please!"

"Right," said Gwen as she left. She ran up the stairs, and into Penelope's room. She didn't see any cushions, only stuffed toys.Pen probably got confused between cushions and stuffed toys.

_Pillows, cushions, whatever._ she thought.

She leaned over the bed to garb a pillow. As she did, she lost her balance, and fell sideways.

Not onto the bed. Onto a cold, stone floor.

Kevin had been following the sphere for forty minutes now. Since the bubble only floated in a direct linear path to the object, it kept on bumping into walls, plants and people. He made quite a few saves- once the bubble had almost flown out of the window, and another time it had hit an employee smack on his bottom.

He had to keep releasing the sphere in different places to figure out the location. The fact that three of the floors had an internal upper storey didn't help his situation either, so he had to change floors too.

At last, the sphere floated down a dim corridor in the upper storey of the fifteenth floor. Kevin almost cried out of relief when hit a door, without moving up or down.

_This is it,_ he thought excitedly. He melted open the doorknob, and quickly slipped in.

The room was filled with filing cabinets. Lots of them.

_Okay, one of these must have the folder…_he looked at the locating bubble in his hand.

Right at that moment, the bubble shrank into nothingness.

_Shit!_

_A/N:Personally, I don't like to keep cliffhangers, but if you think it through it's quite logical what's gonna happen.Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this chapter-this is one of my fave._

_Oh yeah- REVIEW!!!(please)_

_Thank you._


	9. Chapter 9

A/N: I'm sorry I took such a long time and kept you guys waiting but 1 I was too lazy to type 2 I had something behind me- a ravaging monster called "School" and his brother "End of term finals" going after my flesh and soul, so… you get the picture. Onto the story!

Disclaimer: No, I don't own Ben 10.As you can see I'm too lazy. And penniless.

Gwen got up quickly and looked around. She was in an open courtyard, high up… somewhere. "Where am I?" she cried out loud.

"Castle of Forres, Scotland." said a familiar voice behind her.

Gwen spun around. "Hex!"she hissed

"You still remember…how nice," he replied, a mean smile forming on this thin grey lips.

"Would you bother to explain why you bought me here?" asked Gwen annoyed. Of all the times, she thought.

"Ah...it seems, as impossible as it sounds- I need your help."

"You know I'm going to refuse."

"You haven't let me finish. You may be slightly interested if you knew the consequences of refusing to aid me."

"Duh, you're gonna kill me, I don't have to be a genius to figure it out-"

Silence! Your cousin is not here to protect you little girl,"

He paused, to see if Gwen would interrupt. she didn't so he continued.

"You see this castle here was used by the ancient druids to house four stones- four extremely powerful stones each representing an element-fire earth, air and water. These stones are protected by equally powerful enhancements, so only those worthy of their may obtain them and use them."

"And somehow you figured out your worthy, even though you can't break the spells yourself. now that makes a lot of sense, doesn't it?"

"I've been robbed of my powers- by you and that traitor charmcaster," he hissed. "I want my revenge. You'll cut out your suffering by helping me; I will deal with Charmcaster's personally."

"I don't trust you. What if I don't help you?"

"Then I'll use your powers by force, and believe me... it isn't a pretty thing to experience. so, what do you choose?"

Gwen thought for two minutes, and then looked at her watch.

Kevin was confused. The bubble shrank and grew randomly, as though Gwen kept on forgetting that she was searching for the file. He managed to follow the stupid thing to a file cabinet, and it knocked into the second drawer. It was fitted with a cylindrical lock. Finally, something I can do! he thought. He put his ear next to the lock, testing the dial. Thanks to his improved hearing, he could easily the cylinders locking into place- and with a final click, it unlocked.

"Yes!" He opened it. there were about a thousand files in the drawer

_Great_. He hurriedly looked through them, and finally found the clear orange folder. the first paper inside it was the coded e-mail that Gwen told him about. _This is it_. He tucked it under his coat, and locked the drawer. He took the sphere in his hand. It was still shrinking and expanding. He hurriedly put it into his pocket. Five minutes was all it would take to get out of the complex- and it was five minutes to three. _Just in time_, he thought. _Everything worked out so perfectly!_

In the lift, he set it out again. The bubble fell to the floor like a stone.

_What the hell…must be broken_, he thought aimlessly. He was free, and that was all he cared about.

"Hold the staff, and repeat after me," commanded Hex. Gwen managed to fire the spell just as the Vulpimancer was about to swipe at her- but the spell knocked it out in mid air.

"Good," he commented. "Now open the lock."

Hex was standing a good ten feet behind Gwen. He was very pleased- and surprised.

Firstly, the girl had decided to help him. Logical really- there was no one to help her if she refused, and she was promised the power of the staff- and, he grimly remembered- two of the stones. She tapped out the magic of the staff with great ease- she had tremendous potential, and she didn't know.

He knew that if Gwen lived, she could easily defeat him. _If she lived_.

Gwen was busy concentrating on the problem. This wasn't like the water problem- there was only one stone guarded by a bunch of "Ripjaws"- all she had to do was suspend them in air, and they suffocated to death. Then it was the mere matter of summoning the stone from the depth of the pond.

Now they were in the dungeons of the castle. After going through a maze with optical illusion spells and foaming full grown Vulpimancers at every corner, she was exhausted. Hex didn't help much- he just shouted orders, and dodged incoming attacks. Now she was staring at a grid in the floor- and underneath she could see glittering emeralds set in the stone.

She waved the staff-the grid blasted out of her way- and immediately, grayish smoke started to puff out of the hole.

"May be poisonous," said Hex lazily.

Gwen quickly siphoned off the gas using the staff.

"May have a protective layer-"

"Yeah, yeah," She cast a few spells to see if was allright. she hovered the staff over the gems, and finally paused over a triangular grass green emerald. "I can feel the pulse- it's strongest from this one." She summoned it up.

"Give it to me," he said, coming forwards.

"I keep this. Fifty fifty, remember, you get the next one."

"It'd be safer with me," pressed Hex

"I don't think so. I can protect myself, whereas you… well this seems too much for you."

Hex was visibly annoyed. He haughtily turned to walk away. "Follow!" he barked.

Once out and on the streets, Kevin released the sphere again. It stopped changing size, but now it was zooming away from him. He hurriedly followed it. It lead him to a house, not far from the city center. It knocked against the wall surrounding of the house, and scuttled up the wall. He grabbed it just in time, and climbed over the wall and landed into the backyard. The sphere floated diagonally into the balcony of a room upstairs. He looked around for a way into the house- luckily the back door was wide open. He dashed into the hallway, passing a room full of half-asleep girls watching a movie. He ran up the stairs, and into a bedroom. The sphere was there, floating lazily above the bed, as if waiting for him.

_Why did this stupid thing lead me here?_ He thought as his hands closed around the sphere.

Instantly, he felt as though he was in the null void zone again-he fell into nothingness-but then got sucked out of nothingness again- and landed into a burning bed of coals.

"Hex! What do I do?" screamed Gwen.

The Pyronite was hitting her with what seemed like shards of fire. She used her best shield, but she had to keep recasting it every few minutes.

"You're the talented master magician, figure it out!" he yelled from the back of the room. He was enjoying himself- he'd help her later, but first he wanted to see her suffer-_or maybe I'll let her get killed now-_

Gwen randomly swung the staff in front of the, Pyronite blasting it with all the spells she could remember. Unfortunatly they were mostly fire-based attacks.

_Water!_ thought Gwen frantically. _Ice! Rain! Carbon dioxide! Anything!_

Something big and shimmery jetted out of the staff, hitting the alien square on its chest. It cooled down, but it didn't help much- it just the bed of coals it was standing on to revive its flames.

In retaliation, it started to form what seemed like a supernova white-hot fire ball between its fingers, preparing to launch it at Gwen. It took a step forward- and fell down, face first.

Gwen burst out laughing-she just couldn't help it-

The alien got up again, and really hit her with a fire ball. She dodged it by an inch, yet she felt the burn of its power as it streaked past. the fireball hit the wall instead, and blasted it to bits.

This time Gwen used the same spell, but on the pyre. The Pyronite jumped off, but the damage was done- the pyre's flames had shimmered down to nothingness. the angry alien started to attack Gwen, but she caught it first by hitting it with a jet of water. Eventually, the poor alien shuddered, and fell down unconscious.

Gwen angrily turned to Hex. "Why didn't you help me?"

"You knew what to do! Besides, don't you use Charmcaster's spell book?"

"No, I don't"

"What a waste!" he spat. "Go, retrieve the ruby."

Gwen walked over to the now unlit pyre. the coals were actually red rubies. She dug in the head of the staff into the box, hoping it would somehow attract the real one like a magnet. The staff suddenly hit something. she turned around to see if Hex had gone. He had.

She dug her hands into the box- she felt something colder than the rubies, something that felt like flesh.

She grabbed hold of Kevin's arm, and pulled him half out the box of jewels. He was unconscious- or least she hoped.

"Kevin!" she whispered. "Kevin, can you hear me?" she slapped him lightly.

"Owww…uhhhh…Gwen? that you?" Kevin's eyes fluttered open.

"Here," she answered. "thank god you're not hurt- are you okay?"

"Hell no! you nearly killed me!" he said, angry. "If I wasn't fire resistant, I'd have been roasted- and ooowwww these things are sharp- I think my back's embedded with these-ruby shit."

"I'm sorry! I was using the staff, and I was calling the sphere to lead you here too-I probably had it pointed toward the fire when you touched the sphere- that's how you came here- I had no idea you'd come at that moment!"

"Screw that shit, why call me here?" Kevin had climbed out of the box, and was shaking gems off his clothes.

Gwen put the staff head into the box again, and started stirring. "Ahh that…you see…"-

and she explained the whole situation to him.

"Okay," said Kevin slowly.

"Timing is very important- cuz that's the only thing we have- the element of surpirise. Even that won't help." Gwen checked if she had found the ruby. She inspected the head- none.

"You never know. I've beaten thousands of aliens before. "He ran his hands through the box, inspecting the stones.

"He's a magican. Kinda your opposite. He thinks with his head than his body."

Kevin stared at Gwen accusingly. "Take that back- you know I think too," he reminded her.

Gwen was looking at the box, while stirring the staff. She took it out again.

"Finally," she said, as she picked off the large oval shaped ruby. Kevin snatched it before she could keep it in her pocket. He compared it to the other few he was holding.

"This would fetch thousands…"he said, holding it up. He looked at an angry, red Gwen through the crystal.

"Give it back," she said.

He smiled slyly at her, and grabbed her wrist. He pulled her close to him- and slid it in her pocket.

"Don't.Touch.Anything." she ordered. She felt very giddy all of a sudden.

"wouldn't dream of it," he simlied. He let go just as Gwen pushed herself off him.

"No, really. It may be cursed or something." she warned, as she walked away.

"I won't," he promised.

Gwen turned and quickly ran up the stairs.

A/N: Don't ask what the omnitrix aliens are doing guarding magical stuff here on earth. I was again too… er… indolent to make up new creatures, so I just threw them in. Plus it saves me the trouble of wasting time and space to describe them AND you know how they look like! I'm so considerate.

The Castle of Forres doesn't exist- rather, it's an area or a town in Scotland. I got that from Macbeth- that's where the play starts. Initially I wanted to put the place where Macbeth met the witches, but it wasn't stated.

Guess what the last guest-alien will be! You know, earth for Vulpimancers, fire for Pyronite- the next element is air. Can you guess which one's gonna guard the last stone?

Like always- REVIEWS PLZ!!!! Flames also accepted. Don't cry if I throw them back at you though. : P


	10. Chapter 10

A/N: I am so, so SO sorry. I've been away quite a while. Miss me? (If you didn't, boo to you.) The computer broke! Anyways, on with my story…

Disclaimer: Nope. Don't own Ben 10.

"What took you so long?" asked Hex as Gwen rushed in. He was standing at the entrance of the castle's many towers

"Got lost," she lied."You didn't wait. And the guard got up again." she waited for him to enter.

"We cannot go in," said Hex."The entrance is blocked by some invisible enchantment."

"Did you try to do anything about it?"Asked Gwen mockingly.

"If I had, would I be standing here? And you have my staff in case you have forgotten."

"Loser," muttered Gwen. She aimed a hex at the open doorway. The spell passed right over the threshold and into the open space beyond.

_That's strange,_ thought Gwen._ Didn't even rebound._ Looking around, she picked up a stone on the ground and aimed it at the open door. The stone hit the invisible blockage, and fell down. It didn't pass the threshold. _Okay, but solid stuff doesn't pass._ She turned to hex.

"Can we make ourselves... uh... like air? As in just free moving particles?"

"No, unless you mean I obliterate you. "

"Because we need to become like free moving particles-because only solid objects can't pass through."

_As if the enchantment itself was free moving, as if it were made of air. What if it was made of air?_

Gwen conjured up a small flame at the end of the orb, and touched it to the invisible barrier. He watched on, not bothering to ask what she was up to. After a minute she extinguished it-and stepped into the courtyard.

"The barrier was made of air," she explained." Fire uses up air."

"Such a weak defense… it must mean the guardians are very powerful." said Hex.

As he said that, something like a dodge ball hit Gwen in the stomach. She fell back, and looked around. Nothing."The guardians are invisible!"She cried.

"Or too fast to be seen," said Hex. He too was on the floor. He fired a spell directly in front of him- and a Kineceleran seemed to materialize out of nowhere.

Gwen did the same- she fired a couple of the same spells around her, but she only caught a few.

"The spell is temporary," warned Hex as he shot the same alien with four spells- it fell to the ground, motionless.

"These aliens are actually not that strong- it's just their speed that makes them so deadly. Electric impulses, magnetic fields make them go off balance. Any ideas?"

Hex raised his arm- his staff came flying out of Gwen's hand and into his. He chanted off a long incantation. A small sphere slowly issued out of the staff- and it broke. Immedately all the surrounding kinecelerans became visible.

They fought them for a while, but even though they weren't as physically strong as the other gaurds, they recovered quickly, and Gwen and Hex were becoming tired.

Finally, Hex's brain seemed to have caught up with him. With another incantation, he conjured up a vortex. This mini tornado caught all the kinecelerans, and since they weren't fast enough to escape the vortex, they got caught in it. With another wave of his staff, the vortex disappeared.

"Now, for the final stone," said Hex. "We have to set the stones in such a position so that when light passes through them, the intersection of the reflections of the stones will show the whereabouts of the last stone."

"Look, "started Gwen suddenly."You have your all powerful staff, and one of the stones. Why don't you just use that to take over the world or whatever?"

"What?"asked Hex. Gwen was talking utter nonsense. "That is utter nonsense! Even if I had all three stones, it will only be equivalent to my staff. I might as well use another staff! No, the power of the four combined are as great as the charms of Bezel!"

"Why don't you just enchant some other stone…you know, so it has all the properties of the other two? Or just use some other charm- there has to loads of other kinds of charms and stuff lying around…"

"Didn't I tell you before, you ignorant fool?"Hex was really losing it now."Another stone would contaminate their power- and all the stones must be present so they don't work in a destructive order!"

"You're talking as though you're going to have all four stones," said Gwen."Two of them are for me- remember the deal?"

Hex slashed his staff in the air. A dozen of gargoyle-like creatures swooped in on Gwen and caught her, lifting her off her feet, dangling her over the castle tower. The moment these creatures let go, she'd fall some 500 feet down to her death.

"Deal's off," laughed Hex. "With your death!"The gargoyles let go.

A steak of grey streaked past and jumped over the wall as Hex as he said this-and Kevin caught Gwen in mid-fall. They landed on another tower, which was only a few meters below where Hex was.

"About time," said Gwen.

"Hey, you said ONLY when he was about to kill you. I wanted to come in earlier; I got so bored of waiting at the door. You didn't have to talk all that nonsense with him, I was there already!" He set her on her feet. "Now what?"

A/N: Now all my exams are over. Whew! The air blockage thing didn't make sense, I know. But I'm too lazy to think up another one. Okay now listen up. I've already started on the next story BUT I seriously need a beta reader. Any volunteers? Cuz the next story is a sequel, yes it has Ben in it, and Kevin too (but not so much Gwen) so I need someone who's read this story since its different from the present Ben 10 storyline.

And as always-REVIEW PLEASE!!


	11. A Word From Ohateder

**A word from ohateder**

First off- I'M SO, SO, SO SORRY to have kept you all waiting for SUCH a long time. I mean, damn, when I think about it, I was in high school when I started writing this fic, and now I'm almost done with university. I know how annoying it is to keep waiting for a new chapter of a story to come out on , and seeing ideas that you'd LOVE to read more about…but never get written out, due to the author being a lazy bum :D

The other reason I haven't updated this story for eons is well, I lost my manuscript ... ('^.^)  
I like writing out my stories first on paper ( usually random pieces of scrap paper), then can I actually sit and edit it on the PC. God only knows how many story ideas got lost this way- thrown away carelessly while spring cleaning and whatnot. But this story had a really, really good ending, and I had written out a good part of the sequel too. Alas, I can't even remember a bloody sentence from the story.

So these are the basic outlines of the next two sequels to this story- I won't be writing them, since, ah, the ideas are too stale, and I'm planning other stories instead, too. I have a oneshot GwenxKevin in mind, and I thought I'd get more ideas with the new series- but frankly I find it..slightly boring. Trust me, I've tried watching it, but I just can't.

So here they are, just for your entertainment. I was writing these out the same time I was publishing We Meet Again. Yep, back in the time of the original series.

The second story involved Ben and Kevin helping each other out and becoming friends (yeah, remember then we had no idea this would actually happen)…due to them both being catapulted into outer space. (It was Gwen's fault, for once)They have to trek their way back to earth, while fighting an array of monsters, and of course, each other. One of my favorite ideas from that story was a scene where Kevin and Ben get captured and locked up in the same cell. Kevin pretends to seduce Ben in his sleep. Ben goes nuts and raises hell- and that prompts the guard to enter their cell so he could get Kevin "off" Ben- well obviously Kevin takes advantage of the situation and knocks the guard down. Yet, our beloved hero still couldn't get the fact that the whole thing was a show (even after Kevin explained it to him), and the throughout the rest story whenever Kevin gets too close to him, or asks him to "trust me," Ben interprets it in an entirely wrong way, and pure weirdness occurs (like Ben jumps down into the void of space, instead of grabbing Kevin's hand to board the hacked spacebike). Even when they reach Earth, Ben is so convinced that Kevin likes him that he apologizes to Gwen for "stealing Kevin" when she reveals her emotions towards Kevin. Obviously, Gwen hits him in reply.

The third story had already been made into an episode, lol, who'd guessed. Basically, it was about Gwen losing her powers, and Kevin suddenly changing sides to side with, yep, Charmcaster, to get Ben's Omnitrix. It was a lot more serious and dealt with trust issues between the three of them…which have been already explored very well later in the series. Of course, Kevin was a double agent…actually quadruple when you think about it..hmmm..

The fouth was something about the trio and Grandpa Max opening up some kind of space academy, after aliens revealed themselves- but that's it. I spent more time and effort on the previous three, since they were more fun to write- especially the second.

If I find my book (which is highly unlikely), I will put the sequel stories. But for now, just for my beloved readers who'd waited so long- I will put up the last few chapters of this story by the next two weeks. It won't be as great as the original, but I'll try.

Thank you, each and every one of you who had read this far, and encouraged me for more. May cookies rain upon you from the heavens.


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